[Colorado] Hunger Hitting Home

from The Denver Post

Growth rate of Colo. households seeking food 3rd-highest in U.S.

In the past three years, the number of Colorado households struggling to put a meal on the table every day rose nearly 3 percent - the third-highest growth rate among states, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

The USDA estimated that 12 percent of Colorado households had "low food security," meaning they had difficulty providing meals at some point during a year.

"People can say what they want about the economy turning around, but this speaks to the huge gap between those doing well and those with a rough time," said Jim White, spokesman for the Colorado branch of Volunteers of America.

Other groups that feed the poor in Colorado say the statistical rise in the number of hungry people in the state has been noticeable - particularly as the holidays arrive.

Typically, it takes Volunteers of America two weeks to give away 1,000 vouchers for free Thanksgiving food baskets.

This year, it took three days.

And when Food Bank of the Rockies let metro Denver pantries know it had more than 1,000 Thanksgiving food baskets available, officials were stunned at the response - more than 7,000 requests.

"There's nothing in the middle anymore," White said.

An annual average of 216,000 Colorado households - an estimated 479,000 people - experienced some form of hunger between 2003 and 2005, according to the USDA and U.S. Census Bureau.

Maine and South Carolina had a rise in hunger rates slightly above 3 percent. Colorado's 2.8 percent increase was matched by Ohio.

Nationwide, the number of people who didn't have enough money or resources to regularly get food at some point dipped to 35.1 million in 2005, from 38 million the year before.

The USDA hunger study gave only three-year averages for state data.

"It's startling news," said Debbi Garrity, a spokeswoman for Food Bank of the Rockies.

"The sheer effect of poverty shocks me here," she said. "I always think of Colorado as an extremely enlightened place to live."

The report said the nation's hungriest people, those who are worst off, increased by about 100,000 Americans last year to 10.8 million.

From 2003 to 2005 in Colorado, that number climbed to 70,000 households, or about 155,000 people, the report shows.

The number of hungry people is affected by factors including the economy and the availability of food stamps and other social-welfare programs.

If families that are eligible for food stamps do not apply for or receive the stamps, the number of families living in poverty and lacking "food security" increases.

Colorado's poverty rate increased in 2005 to 10.7 percent of the population from 9.8 percent the year before, according to federal figures. The poverty level is an annual income of $20,000 for a family of four.

And just 56 percent of Coloradans who qualified for food stamps received the benefit in 2004, the most recent year for which state data were available. The national average is 60 percent.

It makes sense that some food pantries and community groups are seeing more and more people asking for help.

The Denver Rescue Mission, long known for its Thanksgiving meals, has seen a sharp rise in the number of people seeking food during the holiday.

The mission passed out more than 1,000 food boxes Tuesday, according to spokeswoman Greta Walker.

"We're already planning to increase the number of food boxes for next year because the demand is high," Walker said. "It shouldn't just be a Thanksgiving thing to help the needy."

Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.